The Process

The camera is a tool. The hammer is a tool. I’m more proficient with the camera. As I mentioned in an earlier post we loaded our own cassettes from bulk rolls of film at The Post. If you were unlucky enough to drop a cassette it might pop open. The first time I did this I almost panicked because I had just shot something. Fortunately only a few frames were fogged. With film there wasn’t the instant gratification that today’s digital photography provides. While shooting you might feel that you were doing good but you had to wait until the film was processed to see just how good you did. Sometimes not so good. Then the print was made. Each photographer had their own printing style, and I could tell you what photographer on our staff had shot whatever photograph by just looking at the print. No Photoshop. Just some SpotTone for dust spots on the print.

The Post supplied our equipment. Opening those gold colored Nikon boxes was like Christmas and a birthday rolled into one. The process of going from film to digital took some adjustment but ultimately it’s always about the photograph.